


Morning Star

by timeladyleo



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Demon AU, Fandot Secret Santa, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 00:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9098395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeladyleo/pseuds/timeladyleo
Summary: An au in which Theresa is a demon of royalty, and gets sent to Earth to Liechtenstein to watch over her brother. Kind of implied pre team bobsled. For Xanoka for the 2016 fandot secret santa!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xanoka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xanoka/gifts).



> Firstly, merry christmas and hope you enjoy!
> 
> Secondly, this au at first was a nightmare and then spiralled out of control inside my head. It now has three alternate versions, and an au - however this is the version I'm sticking with, and may at some later date add more to. I hope it stands alone without needing too much of the context I have in my head! 
> 
> Also, all the references to space are entirely accurate. I tried not to be too technical with details about telescopes.

Theresa felt that ‘Princess of Liechtenstein’ had a certain ring to it. Of course, neither had the accuracy nor the intimidation factor of ‘Princess of the Underworld’, but that simply wouldn’t do among mortals. 

In some ways she missed home. Was there a whole lot to miss about hell? Well, she was surprised to find that actually, yes, there was. Naturally she didn’t miss the gore, or the stupid lesser demons, or her mother breathing down her neck, but there was something a little lonely about being the one of the only demons around. In a way, it was similar to royalty - some days were so suffocatingly isolating she forgot she needed to pretend to breathe. 

She stalked along a corridor, headed for the spiral stairs that led up to the tallest tower. The floors were all stone, or wood, and most had a long, decorative rug, presumably to show off about wealth. Theresa rarely walked along the rugs, preferring the strips of bare floor where shadows from the curtains nestled. Colder on bare feet, and made a better noise in heels. 

She always wore heels. The clicking on the floor reminded her of her claws. 

Human bodies were so small. How did they manage to contain themselves inside such fragile flesh? Remarkable. Theresa had always been ambivalent towards humans. Her mother loathed them, and around her Theresa pretended to, just to avoid the arguments. She rather suspected that was why she had been sent, but more fool the Queen - Theresa cared more about getting away from her than she did about being a human. 

At least, she thought she did. 

It was traditional among the high demons to send a few ‘ambassadors’ to the Earth, just to see what humans were up to, and to cause a degree of mischief. Nothing serious, but enough to have some influence. For centuries, the royal demons had been the royal family of Liechtenstein. This gave them the perfect position to watch the world. 

Sometimes others came too, all sent to Liechtenstein. The royal demons were the only ones with power, but sometimes lesser - or even higher - demons came, with some sort of agenda or in rare cases for fun. The fun, of course, came in mischief. On occasion, demons were sent as a punishment, as most hated humans and so to walk around in flesh was humiliating. It was for this reason there was some unrest at the royal family continuing an Earth presence, as though being almost human made them weak. 

Theresa paused at the base of the staircase. The evening was closing in, staining the sky in purple and orange, with some dark clouds lingering on the horizon. She smiled. The human world could be so beautiful. The chance was that they would bring snow, being so close to mountains. The cold was delightful, the way it prickled one’s skin and snuck into all corners of the castle. it wasn’t a sensation she was used to, but still she refused a coat, preferring to feel the slight discomfort in the tingle of the chill. 

If only her mother could see her now. She could still hear the order in her head, _you must go and watch your brother because he is beginning to take too much advantage of his power._ Really she knew this meant _you have disobeyed me here for the last time and I hope you hate it on Earth._ Theresa did hate it on Earth. But not as much as she hated her mother.

Quickly she ascended the stairs, _click click click_ , and felt the light rush of air in her ears. In the staircase, someone had decided to keep the faux-medieval feel and install lights that looked like candles. Theresa had to say that she appreciated them, some days pretending that she was a princess of old where she had to wear a long dress and sigh wistfully out into the distance, rather than flick disinterestedly through some social media. 

How her mother would hate cat videos! 

As did Maxi, for that matter. Much as Theresa wouldn’t say it to her face, her mother was right and Maxi was spinning out of control. Reining him in was proving to be a nightmare, because he had had his taste of an international conference, and wouldn’t stop. his imaginings of ‘real power’, as he called it. Of a fight, and of him ruling over more than just their scrap of land. He didn’t seem to realise the purpose of their settlement, and just wanted the throne that had always been promised to him. 

Theresa just hoped that they’d have the first Liechtensteinian in space before the first real war. That was what she was pushing for anyway, because with luck that would dissatisfy her mother without causing more than a family drama.

It was why she had this telescope in the tower. It was only small, but enough to get a good view of the moon, and if she was lucky, a nebula or two. She had spent hours and hours here, learning where interesting objects were and how to find them. It wasn’t a secret, but she didn’t advertise that it was here, for fear that when Maxi went on a rampage he would decide to destroy all her work. He was regrettably like her father in that way. 

The best nights were early September, when it was dark at night but the skies were full of clusters. Now, in December, it was just cold. Venus rested on the horizon, and as Theresa turned her telescope towards it she allowed her mind to drift. 

Tomorrow she would be greeting an ambassador from England, a demon who had technically disobeyed orders and decided to run off and join an airline. When questioned, all he would say was that the official demon law, giving a precise citation, stated that staying in Liechtenstein was only a strong recommendation, but if an individual causes no severe damage elsewhere, that was allowed. 

Theresa admired this. If only she wasn’t royalty, then she would run away too. She dreamed of becoming first demon in space. This thought pleased her. 

Less pleasing was that she would have to speak to him, and that he would know exactly who she was, and her status would yet again stunt any chance of anyone speaking to her like an individual, whether seen as human or demon. She chuckled aloud, bitterly. No, it wasn’t humanity that was stifling, it was the way she was absolutely denied it. In many ways she hated this demon boy, hated how he, as a lesser demon, was allowed to get away with this while she was trapped here, choking on duty. 

Worse was that this hate was only tiny. Wasn’t a demon supposed to hate? Instead, here she was, full of trepidation to meet someone who would only see her fleetingly, be embarrassed because of her crown and fly away again. She longed for that, to be somewhere other than her tower, isolated from the world. He was surrounded by a human crew - imagine that! She doubted they knew, but still, for him to put up with real humans in a working condition was admirable. 

Would it be worth it to fly? To escape?

She pressed her eye the lens again, Venus flickering in the hazy atmosphere. It was considered beautiful by the humans, and Theresa could see why. It was bright, yes, but its real beauty was in it toxic surface, in the way that three seconds there would kill a man, fill him with poisonous gas and roast him alive. Like a lifetime on Earth was going to kill her. 

She sighed, leaning back. Of course she wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow, but perhaps it would bring something, some spark of the hope she had been missing. The hope that the Earth wasn’t just a prison, and that there was more out there than royal occasions and duty. 

One day she was going to fly away too. This she had promised herself a long time ago, and now, for the first time, she had begun to allow herself to think it may really be possible. She would see what tomorrow would bring. 

Slowly, overhead, the stars rolled on, bringing Orion, the hunter, and Drago, the dragon, before the orange mist of dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> tbc....


End file.
